‘SPOILER ALERT’

in 1964

A young girl named Estella was born with her hair half-black and half-white

She has always had a creative passion and a rather feisty personality

Her mother Catherine notices and nicknames her Cruella

Catherine brings Estella to a private school

where she promises to behave

However, the other children mock her because of her hair

and her only friend is another girl named Anita,

along with a dog she finds and names Buddy

After causing much mischief throughout her time at the school

Estella is expelled

Catherine laments their situation and goes to ask for help from her employer

who is hosting a winter ball at their estate, Hellman Hall

Catherine instructs Estella to stay in the car, but she steps out for a moment to observe the party

Estella and Buddy sneak into the mansion, where Estella, who has always had a love for fashion, is in awe of all the gowns and dresses at the ball

Unfortunately, Buddy gets out

and after Estella chases after him

she is found by a valet named John

Estella escapes him

and Buddy is chased by three vicious Dalmatians

Estella runs outside, where Catherine is talking to her employer, Baroness Von Hellman

The Dalmatians run past Estella and pounce on Catherine hard enough

to push her over the edge of a cliff to her death, which Estella witnesses

The partygoers go outside to see what happened, with the Baroness lying and claiming that Catherine was trying to accost her for money

Estella runs with Buddy and travels in a garbage truck

Estella makes it to Regent’s Park in London where she had wanted to go with her mother

and she realizes that she is missing the necklace her mother had given her to hold onto

She falls asleep by the fountain

and is found the next morning by two delinquent boys

brothers Horace and Jasper Badun, along with their dog Wink

They are trying to swipe from the fountain when they meet Estella

Jasper determines that she doesn’t have a family

and the three run away together when an officer catches them

Estella joins the boys at their hideout

and Jasper tells Horace that they should keep her around

because having a girl might make her seem like an innocent distraction to people they plan to rob

Estella dyes her hair to go along with the schemes

and be unrecognizable

Ten years later

Estella continues to pull off crimes with Horace and Jasper

to support themselves, plus Buddy and Wink

Estella also continues to work on her fashion ideas

On Estella’s birthday

the brothers surprise her with a job for the Liberty department store downtown

since Jasper had noticed her always staring at the place

She is very grateful to them

Estella begins working at Liberty as a cleaning woman

for a rotten boss named Gerald

He never gives Estella a chance to present her ideas

and treats her awfully

Horace and Jasper bring her lunch

and Horace thinks the place can be robbed, but Estella wants to work honestly, only to have the trash she is taking out get poured onto her when the bag rips open

Gerald then brings her back in

and tells her to clean overnight

She steals a liquor bottle from his office that night

and goes to the window display, which Estella finds hideous

Estella wakes up hungover by the window

with Horace, Jasper, and other patrons seeing the display

which Estella changed radically to appeal more to her style

Gerald sees and prepares to fire Estella

until he is informed that the Baroness, who owns the store, is arriving

Estella hides with Horace and Jasper, who proceed to nick Gerald’s wallet and grab a few goodies

The Baroness asks who did the window display, which she actually likes

Gerald says that Estella is the culprit

and is being fired, but she instead tells her assistant Jeffrey

to give Estella her business card

Estella runs off with the Baduns in celebration of moving on up

Estella begins to work at the House of Baroness, coming up with dress ideas and designs

She sees very quickly that the Baroness is a cold and soulless woman

she only critiques the work of her employers and has rather sociopathic tendencies

such as using a razor to cut the sleeves off Estella’s design

and not care when she accidentally nicks Estella’s hand

After work

she stops by a shop operated by a man named Artie

who quickly befriends Estella since she likes his fashion sense

She also notices a red dress made by the Baroness in the window

Throughout her time working, Estella shows the Baroness that she truly does have a talent for fashion

However, Estella changes her tune toward the Baroness

when she sees that she is wearing her mother’s necklace

despite the Baroness claiming it is a family heirloom

When she tells Estella that a former employer tried to rob her

and then fell off a cliff

Estella begins to feel pure hatred for the Baroness

Estella brings the news to Horace and Jasper, seeing it as an opportunity to pull off a heist especially seeing as how the Baroness is set to host an upcoming gala

Estella memorizes the Baroness’s schedule

and how the guards work and move around to plan for the heist

She knows that she will be recognized if she tries to attend

but she knows someone who can arrive

On the night of the gala

Horace and Jasper sneak into the building under the guise of pest exterminators, using Wink as a fake rat

Jasper then makes his way to the security cameras as the heist commences

Estella leaves her wig off and retains her natural hair

showing up in disguise as Cruella

and wearing the Baroness’s dress she saw in Artie’s shop

She stuns everyone in attendance, including the typically unimpressed Baroness

Also viewing and astonished is Anita, who is a journalist and recognizes Estella from her hair

Estella subdues the Baroness’s guards before having a seat with the Baroness

When Horace approaches the safe with the necklace, he finds it empty, and Estella sees that the Baroness is wearing it

Just as the Baroness realizes Cruella is trespassing, Jasper sets off some rats into the party, causing a distraction that allows Estella to snatch the necklace off the Baroness and give it to Buddy

Unfortunately, the Baroness’s Dalmatians come out, and one of them swallows it after trying to take it back from Buddy

Estella sees that the Baroness is using a whistle to control the dogs, which is what she also used when Catherine died, meaning the Baroness deliberately called upon her dogs to kill Catherine

After their truck is towed, Estella hot-wires a car to get away with the Baduns and their dogs

Estella stops and cries over the fact that her boss murdered her mother

The next morning, Estella is still acting as her Cruella persona, ordering Horace and Jasper to steal the Baroness’s dogs, so one of them can pass the necklace

Estella then goes off to Anita’s workplace, still as Cruella, and asks her to get the word out about her personal exploits

Meanwhile, Horace and Jasper find the Dalmatians as they are being given baths, and they use Wink as bait to get them to come out, before taking them away in a van

Cruella soon begins to crash many more events held by the Baroness

and with Anita covering it in the paper, Cruella becomes a fashion sensation, completely upstaging and overshadowing the Baroness

She grows more and more agitated, even firing her lawyer Roger for failing to have Cruella arrested, then instructs Estella to come up with a new design for an upcoming spring collection presentation

Estella orders a special material and creates the dress

which the Baroness is clearly impressed by

although she plans to take credit for it

Estella has Horace and Jasper sneak into the House of Baroness

and create a commotion to make it appear as though Cruella tried to break in

leading the Baroness to have her dresses stored

inside a top secret vault

Back at home, Estella’s increasingly arrogant behavior has begun to put a strain on her relationship with Horace and Jasper

The Baroness holds her spring collection show, but when they open the vault, a swarm of moths fly out, having torn through almost all the dresses

This is because the material with which Estella made her dress were special cocoons

Outside, Horace and Jasper, accompanied by Artie, put on a real show

where Artie sings “I Wanna Be Your Dog”

and Cruella emerges with a dress made of Dalmatian fur

leading the Baroness to think that Cruella killed her dogs

When Estella returns home, she finds Horace and Jasper tied up, with the Baroness and her henchman having deduced that Cruella is Estella

The henchmen grab Estella and tie her to a chair, with the Baroness planning to have Horace and Jasper framed for killing Cruella in a fire

Estella fires back that she knows the Baroness killed her mother, but by her words, she is implied to have killed others when she doesn’t immediately know who Estella is talking about

She leaves Estella, plus Buddy and Wink, to burn, but Estella sees a mysterious figure coming to get her

The place burns down, and word spreads that Cruella has died

Estella wakes up in John’s house, along with Buddy and Wink

He brings her Catherine’s necklace and lets her know that it’s been thoroughly bleached, which, to Estella’s surprise, contains a key to a box

Inside the box is a birth certificate of Estella’s

John then reveals that the Baroness is Estella’s true biological mother

Although the Baron did want children, the Baroness thought being a mother would hinder her success, so she ordered John to have the baby killed after she was born, but he instead found Catherine and gave Estella to her so she can be raised properly

Estella is in disbelief and runs away, stealing a motorcycle from a delivery boy

She rides back to Regent’s Park where she addresses the space as Catherine

While she is in disbelief at being lied to about Catherine not being her mother, she still viewed her as such, and now decides to embrace her new identity as Cruella

Estella gets a truck and busts through the front of the police station, then sets Wink inside to get a key to Horace and Jasper’s cells

Although they break out, they are still mad at Estella for how she treated them

After she tells them about the Baroness being her real mother, they go back to John’s home, where she says that Horace and Jasper are her family

They then gather to come up with a final plan to bring down the Baroness, and Estella later goes to Artie for help as well

Horace comes back with the Baroness’s Panther De Ville car, and Estella likes the sound of the name

The Baroness hosts another ball, were all in attendance are wearing wigs to honor Cruella

Estella grabs a pin and pokes the Baroness, distracting her long enough to grab her dog whistle

She uses it to bring the Dalmatians outside by the cliffside

Horace, Jasper, Artie, and John gather people to start heading outside

Estella gets the Dalmatians to obey her, and then reveals to the Baroness that she is her daughter

The Baroness once again takes credit for Estella’s talent

and pretends to want to take over the business alongside her

She approaches her as if to hug her, but instead pushes Estella over the edge

This is witnessed by everyone, just as the police arrive, and the Baroness is unable to cover it up

Luckily, Estella prepared for this, and she uses a parachute to stop her fall

As the Baroness is being arrested, Cruella arrives, once again surprising everyone

Estella, through narration, reveals that she bequeathed her will to Cruella, knowing that Baroness would try to kill her, which now leaves her with her mother’s fortune

Cruella holds a funeral for Estella, then takes Horace and Jasper plus Buddy, Wink, and the newly adopted Dalmatians back to the estate

Together with John and Artie as part of the team, Cruella tells the brothers that she has some big plans in store

Cruella leaves a Dalmatian puppy named Pongo at Roger’s home

and another named Perdita at Anita’s home

Roger, who has now become a songwriter, begins to write Cruella’s iconic theme song.

Cruella.